Circus Trick
by Sassy Candy
Summary: Hugh, a former Project Shadow copy and werehog, ends up crossing paths with the circus ringmaster, T.W. Barker. He expresses his desire to join the troupe, free of charge. Hugh's reasons for staying elude the penny pinching Barker, who's clear he's only in it to make a buck of Hugh's ability to transform during the full moon. (My first attempt at yaoi.)
1. Chapter 1: Who's Terms

I had a cute idea and had to get it out there. Now, this story is taking place in the middle of my big fic, but you don't need to read that one to get this one. It's stand alone enough to not need buttloads of exposition. XD

Peace out.

_**-Circus Trick-**_

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**Chapter 1: Who's Terms**

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Hugh walked with Shadow through Hedgehog Village. People gave them awkward glances. "I take it you're pretty popular amongst the townsfolk. I seem to be confusing them," he said to the similarly coloured hedgehog at his side.

Shadow shook his head. "Popular? 'Infamous' would be a better word to describe how these people view me."

Hugh noticed a few people staring and whispering. It looked to be something mean spirited. "Why? What's their problem?"

"I've fought with Sonic before and these people have a blind loyalty to that blue buffoon. Or, it could be that Barker told people you attacked him last night. Both possibilities are plausible."

Hugh folded his arms. "It's not my fault he bit off more than he could chew. Then again, I doubt he was expecting me to transform as I did. Is he a dog catcher, or something like that?"

"No, he runs a local circus; though, I doubt his ability to manage the business effectively. All his attractions have a nasty habit of getting away from him. You're no exception it would seem."

"Interesting. After he thought I was you, he tried to talk to me."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? At least it's good to know he's got some decency and is willing to negotiate."

"A circus, huh...is that why he was after me? For a sideshow attraction?" Hugh found it amusing.

"Correct. Whether or not you want that for yourself, I'll leave the decision up to you." Shadow stopped in front of Belinda and Charlie's. "Barker is staying with this couple for the time being. Let him know you don't intend to eat him."

"Overall, don't be too aggressive?" Hugh asked.

"I don't care. These villains are a joke," he said and laid a heavy knock on the door.

Charlie answered. "Shadow, come on in. Did you manage to find out what's going on?"

"I don't have time. Where's Barker?" he asked sternly.

Barker got up from the kitchen table. "Hopefully you come bearing good news," he said with folded hands.

"This is Hugh," Shadow said and stepped out of the way to reveal the 'not' feral, properly groomed, black and red hedgehog. "He wants to clear up any misunderstandings. I'll leave you to it." He walked a short distance away and teleported off.

Hugh was let in. He extended a hand to the person who looked the most worried, "You must be Barker."

He nodded and shook his hand. "The one and only. You must be the werewolf I darted last night."

"Werehog, but, yes."

Barker sat across the table from Hugh. "I'll have to admit, you gave me quite a start. Sorry about the whole 'trying to knock you out' thing. I thought you were some kind of strange jungle beast."

"You aren't totally wrong. No hard feelings. Consider yourself lucky I transformed before you got me with the second dart. I was pretty hazy and the second one would have made me black out. I could have torn you to pieces and not have remembered a thing."

He went pale.

"That would have been one less mouth to feed at the bi-weekly potlucks. They're going to be scant as is," Belinda said as she busied herself with random house chores.

Barker scowled at her. "Some of us would rather starve."

"You live on an island, how are you having a hard time eating?" Hugh asked.

"Not everyone can forage effectively," Charlie said.

Hugh shrugged. "I suppose. Is that why you tried to catch me: To be a sideshow for you to make money?"

Barker tried to craft a convincing lie but was cut off.

"Clever. Thanks to Shadow I can speak English now. Why don't we work something out?" Hugh folded one leg over the other. "Let's talk."

After a few disbelieving blinks, Barker finally nodded. "Y-yes, absolutely. I'll draw up a contract and-"

"No, no," Hugh said with a finger wag. "I'll make a contract and _you _sign it. I may not have lived with other folks for the last forty years, but I'm not an idiot. I still remember how paperwork and loopholes work."

"He's got you there, Barker," Charlie said with a laugh.

He continued. "And if you break my contract, I eat you. Simple enough?" Hugh smirked.

"Indeed," Barker said with a defeated tone.

When the pleasantries were dealt with, Barker took Hugh to the circus caravan. The stunt bears balanced on a few robotic spheres from Eggman Industries as they came to greet them. "Not a bad racket," Hugh said as he spotted a few other workers doing menial tasks and loading boxes on the truck.

Barker gave the bears orders and they were off once again. He turned back to his new hedgehog employee. "Yes, well, it's a bit stale at the moment. I only have enough to hire two workers beyond the bears. Since I'm no longer allowed hold my performers captive, I won't even be able afford to keep them; especially now that you're here."

"You don't have to pay me," Hugh said.

Barker lit up, "You're joking?"

Hugh shook his head, "What do I need money for? Feed me and give me a place to stay. That's all I want."

Barker made a triumphant fist. "In that case, I have a feeling this is going to work out exceptionally well." He put that fist on his hip and tapped his chin with his free hand. "I was considering a sideshow, but with how terrifying your werehog form is, I think we should spring for a full exhibit. Flashes don't bother you, do they?"

"No."

"Good. There are ten cities on the islands we can tour, then we bring the show to the mainland." Barker spread his arms out at his sides.

"And the full moon? I kind of need that to transform."

"About that," Barker paused to think, "I was wondering if there was a way to mimic the full moon's effects. I mean, three nights a month is more than enough to make ends meet, but it would be better if we could invoke this form at will."

"If I get angry, it'll come out too."

Barker swallowed a lump in his throat, "You'll understand why I don't want to piss you off, right?"

Hugh laughed. "True. I do have a harder time controlling the transformation when I'm upset. Plus it goes away when I calm down."

"It's at least possible to transform without the moon. We'll work on it. I'll see if that two tailed twit can rig something up for me." Barker stepped into the back of his truck to make the call.

One of the stunt bears rolled by.

"Hey, can you talk?" Hugh asked.

The bear only shook his head.

"But you can understand me?"

The bear nodded.

Hugh used sign language, "Can you talk this way?"

The bear signed back, "No one would be there to listen," he let out a frustrated growl and continued on.

"Interesting," Hugh said and patiently awaited Barker to be finished.

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There's a few OC's from my story I would love to do little spin off's for. Hugh is one of them. This is only a short romance fic, so it'll go on until love has been achieved.

;P


	2. Chapter 2: Becoming Beast

Hugh is similar to Shadow in the respect that he's going to be an endless sass machine, except far more chill. XD

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**Chapter 2: Becoming Beast**

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Hugh sat at the edge of centre ring and watched Barker work on a project with a young mechanic. They wanted to invoke a werehog transformation with a phony moon. Hugh noted a strange sheen of another clear stone on top of the chalky white orb.

"Time to get into position," the two tailed fox said as he waved to Hugh.

"Ech," he grumbled and stood up from his front row seat.

Barker noted his employee's frustration. "I remind you, _you_ were the one who offered to work here in the first place. Free of charge and not against your will, I might add." He leaned over and made sure Tails heard him. "I'm still trying to make sense of that," Barker said with arms folded out of confusion and slight boredom.

Hugh huffed. "I know. I'm not too thrilled about this working, because controlling the transformation means I have to transform back every morning."

Tails closed a panel and latched it shut. "The difference between Sonic's transformed state and yours isn't that vast. Apart from size and triggers, you both go through the process of your bones growing and shifting. Sonic said it's painful, but not as painful as you described. He said it's more like a full body feeling of a limb that's fallen asleep."

"I won't argue there, that's pretty close to how it feels. Transforming is fine; reverting back is the worst," Hugh said.

Tails held a finger straight up to make his point. "I have a theory as to why you experience such severe pain." He pointed at Hugh. "You use the first light of the day to turn back. Sonic and Amy sleep in a darkened room. There's no light until a door or window's opened. They tested it again this morning by waiting until it was nearly nine. We were right, he needs sunlight to change back." He shrugged. "It's only a hunch, but I'm hoping if we can get you to transform, the light of mid-morning eases the transition back." Tails readied his hand on the switch so he wouldn't lose it in the dark. "Ready?"

"Yes," Hugh said.

"Hit the lights," Tails requested.

The overhead lights powered down and the tent flaps were tightly shut by the stunt bears. Blackness was abound. "Not a damn shred of light. Fire it up," Barker said.

Tails flipped the switch and the big fake, gypsum moon atop the scaffolding was illuminated with the use of 'television stones' and UV light.

The black and red hedgehog glimpsed the obelisk that stood on the far side of the tent. With wide eyes, Hugh's body bulged and shifted. His fur grew long and tipped in red, rather than streaked. His teeth and claws lengthened to razor sharp points. Hugh had fully shifted into a werehog during the day. He rose to his feet and removed the dust form his lengthened fur with a dog-like shake. "How about that? Even the scientists at the lab couldn't figure out how to do that." He stood up tall on two digitigrade legs.

Barker had a flashback to the previous night when he had first stumbled on Hugh, with intent to catch him as a sideshow attraction. After a failed attempt at communication and darting the guy, he had the 'surprise' transformation sprung on him. Hugh's jaws being big enough to engulf his whole head was the last thing he recalled before he passed out. "Yep, still terrifying. The folks are gonna eat it up," Barker said and placed triumphant fists on his hips.

"The gang told me your form was bigger than Sonic's. They weren't joking," Tails said and went up to get a better look at werehog Hugh. "You easily tower a solid foot over Sonic. You're almost as tall as Eggman."

"I don't know who that is...but the name rings 'disappointment'," he said and looked thoughtful.

Tails turned to his wrist communicator and contacted a teammate. Their team leader had acquired the ability to transform into a werehog when he and Shadow raided Hugh's temple home the day before last. During which time they also disturbed Hugh's peaceful residence. However, Sonic wasn't having as easy a time has Hugh did.

The blue blur showed up in an instant but forgot to remove his footwear before looking at the fake moon. "Wait! No! Crap!" he yelled as he transformed into a slate blue werehog with white tipped quills. "AARGH! That's the third damn pair of shoes this week!"

The two laughed while Barker rolled his eyes.

Hugh knew Sonic had only transformed a couple times on his own. While his own form came during the full moon, it appeared Sonic was dealing with the werehog transformation each night. That moment marked his third transformation.

"I'm loving this new tape though," Sonic said as he held up his claws to show the tape had stayed in place. "It's stretchy; like my arms," he said with a grin.

"Your arms," Hugh repeated with confusion.

Sonic showed off his ability. He climbed to the top of the trapeze with a single extended arm. He swung around centre ring and back down to the ground beside them. "See? Heh, I take it you can't do that."

Hugh made an attempt. His arm stayed put. "No. That's news to me; I don't think any of the others could do that either."

Barker spoke up, "If you all don't mind, we need to set up for tonight's show soon. We haven't even rehearsed yet."

"Right, sorry. You both ready to go back?" Tails asked.

Tails got a nod and killed the machine's power. Barker flipped a switch and the tent recoiled into it's 'packed' state, bathing them all in near-noon light.

Sonic and Hugh reverted to their original forms simultaneously. Neither of them seemed too bothered.

"That's a lot better," Hugh said as he waggled his jaw back and forth. "I could never be in total darkness in the jungle, I suppose that's why I never noticed. The lab only used light brought in through fiber optic cords."

Team Sonic dispersed. Hugh, Barker and the rest of the circus began to pack up and move to the location of their first spectacle near the island's luau.

"Will we be attending the luau tonight?" Hugh asked as he cracked his neck. Easier transformation or not, it was still uncomfortable.

"I'd rather not. I'm trying to stay away from alcohol," Barker said.

"Good, me too. I'm allergic to the stuff anyway," he looked around for something to do. "What exactly is my job here?" Hugh didn't see anything beyond moving boxes that he could occupy himself with.

Barker thought about it. "Apart from being a horror attraction, you don't have much to do at the moment. You're free until we get set up and start rehearsing."

Hugh shrugged and looked off towards the sounds of chattering people. "Alright, I'm going to see the sights in town." He slipped on a pair of beige and hemp, thong sandals Amy had given him.

"We're going to be on the south side for the evening. We'll be in the empty lot near the 'nude beach'."

Hugh raised his eyebrows. "Nude beach?" He looked down at the only clothing he owned on his feet. "I think I'll see you there. It sounds like my kind of place."

Barker turned his nose up, folded his arms and looked Hugh over. "I suppose living alone in the jungle makes you impartial to social norms. I'll find you some clothes and get you up to speed on how to behave properly, when we're on the road."

"You're assuming I 'want' to behave. Besides, I didn't live alone, I had Dr. Shannon with me up until five years ago." Hugh walked off to see Hedgehog Village for himself.

"Huh, well then," Barker shrugged it off and went back to ordering his scant employees around.

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Aww, Hugh had a friend this whole time. ^x^


End file.
